Bicentenary celebrations of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, UK

To commemorate its bicentenary, the Royal Asiatic Society, London, UK commissioned a limited edition re-issue of Lt.- Col. James Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, with a new Companion Volume by Dr. Norbert Peabody. The book is co-published by the Society and Yale University Press.

The book launch ceremony held at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London on Wednesday, 6th December 2023 at 6 pm.

Mr. Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, Trustee, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, Udaipur was the Chief Guest of the book launch ceremony. Dr. Mayank Gupta, CEO, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, Udaipur was also present during the ceremony.

The ceremony started with the welcome note of Professor Sarah Ansari, President of the Royal Asiatic Society. A brief presentation on the book was given by the author, Dr. Norbert Peabody followed by the book launch then speech by the chief guest and finally a thank you note.

Excerpts from the speech of Mr. Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar "I think it is a great day and what a wonderful way to be able to celebrate 200 years of the existence of this wonderful place and it is a lovely tribute by being able to put history back in front of all of us in the 21st century.

I think in this 21st century world where everybody is move towards computers, mobiles and technology, which is all fantastic. It is great, but if you ask a student like me, what it that, we really think the books is, we really use to really cover our face to go to sleep.

You cannot do that with laptops and mobile it can only be done with books. So the reason why I say this is the fact that I think the young need to get back into history. Otherwise, when you ask us, it is like history is full of mystery, you know, and you want to run away from it. But I think there has to be something that has to be done and there is no better place to give birth to a concept, a way forward, to be able to get the young attractive back towards their culture. And I think we cannot limit them just to a certain place or a space.

I think these things will go beyond geographical boundaries and that is what exactly happening here and we all need to come together to be able to find a way where we can inspire the young. And I think if we need to prosper, we need to go forward, education is the rule".

Lt. Col. Tod was a founding member of the Society and its first librarian. While librarian, he completed his Annals (originally published in 1829 and 1832), which was the literary fruit of his 23-year East India Company career, during which he served as the first Political Agent to the Western Rajput States of Rajasthan (1818-22).

The two volumes of Tod's classic text remain essential reading for anyone interested in the history and culture of Rajasthan and the early colonial encounter in India. The text also became an inspirational source for early Indian freedom fighters, who drew on Tod's rich narrative of Rajasthan's history, which he articulated in explicitly nationalist terms, as a call for India's independence from British rule.

The book continues to exert a subtle influence on the national imagination of contemporary India. Tod's text, thus, remains an indispensable source for understanding not only Rajasthan's historical past but also important aspects of India's political present.

One of the principal contributions of the Companion Volume lies in its exploration of how Tod's Annals is a vibrantly collaborative text in which his authorship is continuously supplemented, and not infrequently destabilized, by the voices of his numerous Indian interlocutors. The resultant cacophony renders Tod's text surprisingly multivalent and discrepant in its significance and potential uses. In rearticulating the variety of Indian voices that simultaneously inhabit Tod's Annals, the Companion Volume makes a larger argument for a conjunctural, contingent, and open-ended reading of colonial history.

The accompanying Companion Volume provides the contemporary reader with the necessary background, critical apparatus, and interpretive frames to better understand this monumental, but often misunderstood, work.

Mr. Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar was also awarded Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland by Professor Sarah Ansari, President of the Royal Asiatic Society